


Tipping Point

by Ria Talla (ronia)



Series: One Quarter of the Stars [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Galactic Republic, Gen, Jedi, Jedi Culture, Jedi Temple (Star Wars), POV First Person, Space Politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 08:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18464899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronia/pseuds/Ria%20Talla
Summary: Adi Gallia, Republic Era/Mid-Phantom Menace"Do you really believe the Trade Federation would invade a Republic world?" Valorum asked.I took a breath. He wasn't asking the right question."I believe that if what's happening on Naboo is allowed to continue, the other member systems will wonder what they owe to a Republic that can no longer protect them."





	Tipping Point

Adi Gallia  
32 BBY

I arrived early, while the Senate Hall was still mostly quiet. I think Valorum may have contacted me even before calling the session. Perhaps he wanted to gauge my reaction. But it wasn't until ten minutes after we'd spoken that the Temple began to hear from our usual Senate contacts. 

I usually arrive early, to have time to myself in that space. The Senate Chamber itself is enormous, cold, and dark; it feels built to overwhelm, to make all who enter small against the vastness of the galaxy. I like to stand out in the halls at first, to take in the sunlight through the windows that line them for as long as I can.

I lingered outside the pod designated for Jedi observers. Facing the windows, watching the city below, but more than that, feeling the warmth on my face, along my tendrils which slipped out from under my hood toward the sunlight. I listened to the hall around me, and below, to the Chamber within. There were a few soft voices, the mechanical clink of droids rushing to make preparations. This was an emergency session, so they wouldn't have had much time. It was likely many senators were rushing back to Coruscant, though given the climate of the moment, it really shouldn't have been a surprise.

Perhaps I'd stood there for ten minutes when I heard footsteps and voices I knew to be organic. They weren't quiet, I imagine because they thought the hall was empty. But my Nemoidian is limited, and I could only pick out a few words. 'Disaster' was one, and 'missing,' and a word close to 'agreement.' There was the steady click of a droid walking with them, but the droid didn't speak.

The voices hushed when they must have seen me, and they were silent as they approached. I let them continue until they had nearly passed me before I greeted them.

"Senator Dod."

The three of them behind me came to a halt. There was a pause, and then his voice came in return. "Master Jedi. I um, did you –"

"I've only learned to recognize your footsteps, Senator." I turned away from the window, meeting his large eyes as I faced them. "And your companions'."

The droid, a shining silver protocol model, quickly stepped forward. "Your eminence," she said to the senator, before she turned to me, "This is Jedi Master Adi Gallia."

"Of course I recognize the Jedi," the senator snapped. The droid shuffled back, and the senator looked to me. "You're here for the emergency proceedings, I take it."

"I was invited by the Chancellor."

Another pause, as I saw the senator's aid glance at the floor, and the protocol droid teeter, ready to interrupt. The senator merely watched me, with no answer.

I continued, "As the matter involves the Jedi."

"Yes," the senator said quickly. "It's, ah – unfortunate, from what I've heard. But a ship goes missing, who can say what has become of it?"

Again, I chose to let the silence speak for me. We knew by then that the ship carrying Master Jinn and his apprentice had reported arriving at the Federation convoy over Naboo. Perhaps the senator meant to tease out my suspicions, as I did his. But I offered nothing.

This time, the protocol droid did interrupt. "Your eminence, your call with the Viceroy –"

"Yes." The senator raised a hand, silencing the droid. "With apologies, I have other matters to attend to. Good day, Master Jedi."

I watched them until they stepped beyond the view offered by my raised hood. They stayed silent as they left me.

* * *

The official notes will be annexed. I have my impressions of the session. Senator Dod was outraged, though I needed no special insight to assess his frame of mind. I'm sure many others noticed it as well, the senator wavered like a cornered tooka ready to pounce at any movement. Chancellor Valorum hardly spoke – he really is never so quiet as in the Senate Chamber.

The Senator from Naboo surprised me. He's known to be ambitious, and sometimes eager, particularly for being from a smaller system. From what I know, Palpatine is the sort of man who thrives in a bureaucracy, patient enough to navigate it but also effective in building paths to cut through it. He could make his way in part through dedication, but largely by being unobjectionable. I had only shared a few conversations with him, and none were memorable.

But now, before the Senate, he spoke of silence from his homeworld, and the rumors that his Queen was missing or worse, with fierce but constant calm. The minimal impression he had given before made his presence all the stronger now, he looked in every way a man weathering a storm with clear eyes and great fortitude. I wondered if Valorum felt the shift in the Chamber, as I certainly did. No one else spoke with such clarity and confidence in this crisis.

After the session had ended, I stayed in my pod, waiting until the protocol droid I was expecting arrived to inform me that the Chancellor had asked to speak with me privately. The droid, J-279, accompanied me from the chambers to the turbolift that reached the highest floors of the senate complex, providing the access code that opened the lift's doors onto the wide entrance hall of the Chancellor's offices. There was the familiar Senate Guard to the right – the orange sunlight through the windows lit up her face against her dark blue robes and helmet. I turned to her as I passed, but as has always been the case, she didn't look back.

The doors to the office were closed when I reached them, and at the desk, Idor explained that the Chancellor was just finishing another meeting. As always, he offered me a seat in one of the chairs or benches that encircle the wide antechamber, and as always, I stepped to the wall, and stood instead. J-279 offered to bring me a drink, which I declined, before she continued on, through the closed doors.

This outer hall can itself be a place of interest. Today it was otherwise empty, and quiet. The long blue carpets that lined the hallway looked smooth and unruffled, as though few had walked over them since they were last cleaned and swept. The entire space had the look of being untouched, strange for the Chancellor's office on a quiet day, let alone in the middle of a crisis. The only exception was Idor – the Falleen barely looked up from his desk. He has a talent for small talk, and usually likes to chat with anyone waiting, perhaps to pick up on news and gossip from the dignitaries. Today he was fielding one message after another, and had looked up only just long enough to greet me as I entered. Idor spoke softly into his receiver, and typed into the green glowing board in front of him.

It seems that, from the capital, a crisis can be very quiet.

Eventually, the doors opened. J-279 reemerged, followed by two men speaking quietly with Valorum. Orn Free Taa of Ryloth, and Com Fordox of Corellia. A few others were walking behind them, aides and assistants, and I lowered my head, letting my hood cover my face. Of course, I felt him regardless. There has never been any helping that, and by now it's nothing more than a momentary distraction, like a glare of light in my eyes. But it has always seemed wiser to just let it pass, when possible.

The Senators' voices went quiet – I heard Senator Taa speaking in Twi'leki with a woman, saw their shadows pass along the carpet. And then in a closely followed dance, Senator Fordox called to him, and they were discussing a reception for the Corellian Engineering Corporation that they were planning to attend next. I looked up after he passed me. His dark, human hair is now cut very short, he used to wear it longer. He wore a deep green vest over a light gray shirt. The fabric didn't look as rich as the kind of robes worn by many in the Senate, but was thoroughly clean and neatly pressed. He didn't look back, of course. Even when I'd spoken to him, he'd never looked at me for too long.

And Valorum called. "Master Gallia." I turned to look to him, and smiled as he took my hand. "I very much appreciated your presence at the session earlier."

"We were honored to accept the Senate's invitation."

This was another overly familiar script, and Valorum didn't take any longer with it. He gestured to J-279. "Jay," he called her, "Have a tray of rek tea brought into my office, please."

The droid bowed, and Valorum led me toward the open doors. Idor rose to try to get his attention, but Valorum quickly waved for him to sit. All of his messages would have to wait until after his meeting with the Jedi. I wonder if I'm really doing Valorum any favors, at this point.

Valorum's office reflects the same spectrum of blues and bronzes of the entrance hall beyond. Rather than taking me toward his desk placed by another enormous window that looked out into the city, he instead led me to the immediate right, to a small circle of plush blue and green chairs that had been collected around a low black table. I lowered my hood as I took a seat in one of the chairs. It was the first time I'd done so in hours. For the moment, the table was empty aside from a scattered collection of small figurines along the edges. I picked one of them up, a soldier whose tiny uniform seemed to date her to the Old Republic.

"How are Manji and Viera?" Valorum has one daughter, Prennis, whom more and more often had been seen visiting her father at his office, alongside her own two young children. The more cynical, though perhaps not entirely wrong, have seen it as calculated to humanize the Chancellor after months of low approval and a particularly disastrous summit on Eriadu. It's not such a bad idea, to have a little mess in an office that has otherwise in its colors and décor appeared dedicated above all to the prominence of House Valorum.

"Manji begins at the academy in a month," Valorum answered. He took a seat across from me. "If you can believe that. And Viera watched one holodoc about Felucia and has already decided she wants to be a xenobotanist, apparently all she ever wants to do now is visit the Botanic Collection."

"Coruscant's no place for those who love nature," I said.

Valorum sighed, and waved a hand. "She can always take a trip south."

By this he means the estate belonging to House Valorum in the southwest quadrant of Coruscant. It is one of the very few artificially created areas of natural space on the planet, and includes a few square kilometers of forest, two large, pristine gardens, and at least three farms, one of which must have provided the rek tea that a server droid then brought in for us. The tray held two glass cups that were already full, and a plate of light scones flecked with red from the plom bloom petals that are baked into them.

They are Valorum's favorite, so I've had them many times before. And I do enjoy them, though the richness of them turns my stomach a little every time.

"How are matters at the Temple?" he asked, after setting one of the scones on a plate, and placing it near me. I imagine it troubles him, that there are not always obvious options for endearing oneself to a Jedi. Instead, it's straight to business.

"The Council is concerned, as you can imagine," I answered, "We know that Master Jinn and his apprentice arrived at their destination, and that they went missing shortly after that. There is little doubt among us that the Trade Federation played a role in their disappearance."

Valorum stayed quiet for a moment, leaned forward, his hands folded. "And you don't have some way of knowing if…"

He trailed off, and so I decided to say it plainly for him. "What insight we may have from the Force, we consider with information from other sources before reaching a conclusion."

"Of course," he murmured, and picked up his tea. "I'm afraid this matter is spiraling far beyond Naboo. Senators from numerous high-exporting systems are concerned the Trade Federation will turn on them next."

"It looked that way," I said.

Valorum glanced up from his tea, and then nodded. "Senator Taa of course is concerned about the Federation targeting a more vulnerable world next. And if they interrupted ship manufacturing on Corellia…"

"Nowhere in the Republic would be safe." Again, I said what he had been thinking. I let him consider those words and picked up my own cup. The rek tea that is grown on the Valorum estates has an overly sweet quality, which likely comes from the chemicals infused into the roots of the flowers that make it, mimicking the effects of additional sunlight.

Valorum asked, tentatively, "You've been speaking with Senator Fordox then?"

"Not today," I said, putting the cup down again. "Are you suggesting I should?"

"I just thought – you might be familiar with his staff –"

"Are you referring to my brother?"

Today, after all, was a day to catch the Chancellor off-guard. I have rarely seen Valorum open-mouthed and speechless, but he was both for a few seconds after I said this. Then, "I wasn't sure you knew."

No, he had no reason to know. "The Council decided to inform me during my apprenticeship," I explained. "I know you also worked with both of my parents at various times. Once my likely path with the Senate was clear, they felt it was best to prepare me."

It was simple enough, and allowed Valorum to quickly regain his footing. "You don't speak to him, then?"

"I've worked with him a few times," I answered. "But no, I don't speak to him about this."

"The Jedi don't permit it?"

This is a question I've found many are quick to ask when they have the opportunity – there is so much curiosity around what is forbidden to the Jedi.

I eased around it. "The Jedi renounce familial ties beyond the Order. Our relationship is professional."

Valorum drank from his cup again. Maybe he thought if he waited I would continue. But I simply did the same, and he seemed to realize that this was the end of that particular conversation.

"I wish I had some better news for you about the missing Jedi," he said, once the moment had passed. "I sincerely believed they could reason with the Federation."

"I know, Finis," I said. "And the Jedi Order can investigate their disappearance ourselves. But you're facing a much more pressing issue."

Valorum raised his eyebrows, apparently surprised that I would dismiss our missing Jedi in favor of anything else. "The trade crisis?"

"The Senator from Naboo is reporting that he's lost contact with his planet, and his leader is missing. Whatever is going on there, the situation is naturally causing concern throughout the Republic."

"Do you really believe the Trade Federation would invade a Republic world?" Valorum asked.

I took a breath. He wasn't asking the right question.

"I believe that if what's happening on Naboo is allowed to continue, the other member systems will wonder what they owe to a Republic that can no longer protect them."

Valorum lowered his eyes, and considered my words as he reached for his small, rich scone.

* * *

After sharing my initial report with Master Windu, I walked through the ablution waters, a practice I've always found calms my mind after time spent in the Senate Chambers. It was after dark by the time I entered the hall, when the long pool is largely lit by moonlight through the high windows. There's a comfort in dark water, and as I had the hall to myself, I could walk slowly down the sloped steps into the pool, and keep moving as the water reached my waist, my shoulders, and immersed my tendrils.

From this, I turned to meditation. As with the ablution room, the space I chose for meditation was dark and entirely empty of others. I sat next to one of the blueleaf shrubs that are planted into the floor in a winding pattern around the room. I counted my breaths, shut the light from my eyes, and reached first to the hum of life around me.

I had some time, like this. Before I felt Master Koth's approach.

I felt his intent first, a few halls above. By then I was settled back into my awareness of the Temple, unfocused but still vivid. I had time, before he stepped into the room, to adjust my breathing, to slowly bring myself back into the moment, into the room, under my own skin. I stayed seated, but opened my eyes, and turned them to the vast windows, and the sea of light that roils beyond them.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Master Gallia," he said as he entered. I turned to face him, not yet rising from the floor.

"Not at all. You can join me, if you like."

Master Koth did cross the room, taking a seat on the floor across from me, just a few meters away. With the room still dark, I could only see a few flickers of his approach. His face came into view as the lights through the window reached it. He was watching me carefully, and I waited for him to speak.

"I don't envy you at the moment, Gallia," he said. I smiled at him.

"As surprising as you may find it, working with the politicians is not so particularly tasking."

He grimaced, and shook his head. Yet, after all, he had to believe me. "They create rifts where none need be, and imperil us in their attempts to rectify them."

"If they haven't simply murdered us," I point out, my smile now gone and my voice going quiet. He looked back up at me, and I continued –

"I don't know. This is what we've chosen to stand by, and it designates power to a few who at best are still susceptible to the worst impulses any of us have. But theirs resonate across billions of lives."

"And at their worst…"

We sat in silence, each glancing out the windows, toward the city below. Billions of lives on just this one planet, incalculable lives beyond.

"More than anything," I said, "I'm afraid I'm enabling their inertia. Maybe the Republic seems to us and them as something that will always hold because it has for so long. It's not our role to sound the alarm, but our presence may also give them an illusion of safety."

I looked back at Master Koth. He was watching me again, his expression wasn't skeptical, but I could see that his eyes were flashing closely on me. Perhaps he was even reaching out into the Force, to help his understanding of my words. "You think the risk is that serious?"

"I don't know."

I don't know. My conversations, my solitude, my time with the Force – none have offered me any more clarity on this situation, nor the cracks that may lie in the foundations of the Republic. But there's a dissatisfaction that runs deeper than a trade dispute, perhaps deeper than what may be resolved in a new election or a new Chancellor. And I don't know that either Jedi or the politicians will be ready to face it.

**Author's Note:**

> _Adi –_   
>  _Wow no one could seem to make their minds up about you. Were your tendrils actual tendrils, or a special Tholothian headdress? (Now it looks like it's the former.) Are you Tholothian or Corellian? (why not both?) Is that you or your cousin? (Cousins totally coincidental cousins.)_
> 
> _But a Jedi who specifically liaisons with the politicians, and whose parents were also diplomats on Coruscant – that all sounded pretty cool. And there's a lot I can relate to in not knowing if the center can hold, but also not knowing what to do about it._


End file.
